A guide to hotels where all the food is halal, with a clear line between a hotel whose food is entirely halal and a hotel that is also alcohol-free. With city, country and exactly what you can book.
Photo: Filipp Romanovski / Unsplash
In short
Eleven hotels where all the food is halal, not just one dish or one restaurant.
The distinction this guide is built on: a hotel can serve 100% halal food and still serve alcohol. Six here are alcohol-free, five are not.
Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore is MUIS certified across its whole food operation, including room service and banquets, and still serves alcohol.
Every hotel was checked against our own search engine, except one that is not in inventory and is marked as such.
When a hotel writes Halal Friendly on its site, that still does not mean everything it serves is halal. There may be one suitable dish, or only the meat may be halal, and sometimes there is one suitable restaurant alongside others that are not. At SherryStay.com (opens in a new tab) we went looking for something else.
We looked for hotels where all the food served is halal, or where the entire kitchen operation holds halal certification.
And we found something worth understanding before you book: a hotel can serve 100% halal food and still serve alcohol. That is why this guide carries two separate tags rather than one.
The hotel states that every meal in its restaurants is Halal Certified, and describes its food outlets as 100% Halal Certified. It also serves no alcohol at all.
And it does not stop at the food: rooms are marked with the qibla direction and carry a prayer mat and a Quran, and the hotel has dedicated prayer facilities. The cooking is Thai, Arabic, Asian and Western, so this is not a narrow menu but a full hotel in Thailand (opens in a new tab).
It has two separate prayer rooms for women and men, a prayer mat in every room, a Quran, a qibla marker, an ablution tap in the shower, and a shuttle to Friday prayers at the mosque. The restaurant and the 24-hour room service are halal.
It also has a women-only pool alongside the family pool, and that is exactly the kind of facility that turns a hotel from "the food works" into "the holiday works".
Its De’dapoer restaurant is an MUI-certified outlet serving only halal food and drink across the property, and the hotel is alcohol-free in all public areas.
Every room has a prayer mat, a mukena, a sarong, a Quran in three languages, a qibla marker and prayer times. And there is a mosque within the property, which is very hard to find in Bali.
It was certified by DSN-MUI in 2003, and the change from a conventional hotel to a halal one took about a decade. Food and drink are halal certified, alcohol is prohibited outright, and there are separate leisure hours for women and men in the facilities.
This is a modest three-star hotel, not a resort. The story here is not luxury but seniority: this is one of the places that defined what a shariah hotel even is.
Illustrative image of Cape Town, not a photo of the hotel · Photo: Sinead Fouche / Unsplash
What exactly is special: All food halal, a certified kitchen, and no alcohol served. Not in our inventory.
This is the entry that gives us sub-Saharan Africa. The hotel’s official name is literally The Capetonian - Halal, and it sits in Cape Town (opens in a new tab).
All food is halal, the On the Square restaurant runs a certified kitchen and dining room, and no alcohol is served on the premises. The location also suits a Cape Town holiday, with a view towards Table Mountain.
One practical note: this hotel is not in SherryStay’s inventory, so there is no direct hotel link here, only a search for the city. You would need to book it directly.
The certification here is from MUIS, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, and it does not cover a single restaurant but the hotel kitchens, the Carousel live stations, room service and food served at events. Room service, in other words, stays inside the certified system.
And yet the hotel serves alcohol. MUIS permits that under this type of certification with defined controls. Which is exactly why the two questions have to be asked separately.
There is an all-day dining restaurant with an international buffet, a second restaurant and food outlets by the pool and the sea.
But the hotel also runs bars serving cocktails, so again: halal food yes, alcohol-free hotel no. It is a convenient base for a sea holiday in Egypt (opens in a new tab), a drive from Cairo.
There is international dining, a cafe and in-room dining, and it is an apartment-style hotel that suits a longer stay or a family that wants a kitchenette.
Alcohol is served here too, in dedicated outlets, so it belongs in the same category as Singapore and Egypt rather than in Sharjah’s.
There is also a secluded ladies-only spa area and indoor and outdoor pools, which gives you a combination that is hard to find: turquoise water, villas and a halal kitchen operation.
But the island also runs three bars, so this is not an alcohol-free resort. If that is your criterion, Sharjah or Langkawi are the more precise answers.
Do not ask a hotel only "do you serve halal food". A hotel can answer yes with two suitable dishes on the menu.
The right question is whether all food prepared and served by the hotel is halal, including breakfast, room service, the restaurants and banquets. And if the wider environment matters to you, ask separately whether alcohol is served.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Halal Friendly and a hotel where all the food is halal?
Halal Friendly is a marketing phrase that can describe a hotel with one suitable dish, a hotel where only the meat is halal, or a hotel with one halal restaurant alongside others that are not. A hotel where all the food is halal is one where everything the kitchen prepares and serves qualifies, including breakfast and room service. Those are two very different levels, which is why it is worth asking explicitly.
Does a hotel with halal food necessarily not serve alcohol?
No, and this is the most important distinction in the guide. Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore is MUIS certified across its entire food operation, including room service and banquets, and still serves alcohol. Bandos in the Maldives likewise serves 100% halal food and runs three bars. If an alcohol-free hotel matters to you, that is a separate question that has to be asked separately.
Where can you find a hotel that is both all-halal and alcohol-free?
There are six such options in this guide. The simplest is Sharjah in the UAE, an emirate where alcohol is prohibited outright, so every hotel there is alcohol-free. The others are Al Meroz in Bangkok, Adya in Langkawi, Rhadana in Bali, Sofyan in Jakarta and The Capetonian in Cape Town.
What is worth checking before booking?
Three separate things: whether all the food is halal or only part of it, whether there is certification from a recognised body such as MUIS in Singapore or MUI in Indonesia, and whether the hotel serves alcohol. And if facilities such as a prayer room, a qibla marker or a women-only pool matter to you, that is a fourth question that does not follow from the first three.
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